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Elvira: The Queen of Halloween Returns Home

by Charles Karel Bouley (Karel, special to GED)

 

I grew up on late-night horror films on broadcast TV (yes, PC, Pre-Cable). There I would sit, with hundreds of thousands of others around Los Angeles, nestled in my tightie-whities on a Friday night, up late, past 11, waiting to be horrified. On local LA TV there always someone to turn to for frights, some actor done up as a ghost or ghoul to host the movies (back when TV movies were hosted).

Then, in 1981, a great rack in a tight black dress with an odd sense of humor burst (almost literally at times) on the late-night weekend scene: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark on “Movie Macabre.” Each week she would be provocative, overtly sexual, funny as all hell (pun intended) and was quickly noticed by local theme park Knott’s Berry Farm. Knott’s was doing a limited Halloween promotion, the Haunt, and wanted Elvira to do her stage show in the Ghoul Time Theatre (an 1800 seat venue inside the park). The park had used ghoulish celebrities like Wolfman Jack (another icon in Southern California and the country) and Sinister Seymour. But Elvira would quickly become the gold standard for Halloween. Under that bouffant hair and thick eyeliner was one smart woman named Cassandra Peterson, and Peterson was ready to become an icon.

I had the pleasure of first meeting Peterson, ahem, Elvira, in 2000 at Knott’s. My late husband Andrew and I had been asked to introduce her and host the pre-show and intermission. We were working then at KFI AM 640 and were so honored, as we both were fans. I would quickly learn that it’s not an act, Peterson is genuine in all her fakery, she is honest and real under all the costuming, a woman that takes time out for all her fans, remembers many of their names (I’ll never know how) and really enjoys her work.

“I started as an actress doing a gig, creating a character,” she told me backstage, “and then the character became bigger than life, for two very good reasons,” she laughed, pulling up her costume to make sure she didn’t have a Jackson wardrobe malfunction.

Soon Elvira and Knott’s were linked and for many years she was the given when it came October. Promotional tie-ins had her image all over the Southland. Her fame, of course, led to Hollywood and in 1988 Elvira hit the big screen with a vengeance in the classic “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.”

“That was probably one of the most fun things that I have ever done in my career,” she recently reflected while out promoting “Elvira’s Haunted Hills” in the UK. “Of course, it’s always more fun when it’s someone else’s money and lots of it,” she laughed. “But the entire experience was so incredible. It was my first movie, my first big production and you always have a special place for your first love in your heart,” she added.

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The film became a cult hit immediately and cemented her place as an icon in the GLBT community. But Peterson has always loved the community. Heck, she started in it in a roundabout way.

“I got my start in a Colorado gay nightclub as the front woman to an all gay male band, I guess I was a drag queen from the get go!” she has stated. “I mean, I was a girl, playing a guy, playing a girl. Heck, I was a go-go dancer for several clubs and there was this one called Purple Cow. I didn’t even know what gay clubs were back then. One night, a ‘girl’ didn’t show up for the drag show and they asked me if I wanted to be one of The Supremes. Well, who wouldn’t!”*

Years later Elvira would be a guest judge on the new gold standard of drag, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and did “Elvira’s Horror Hunt” with Peaches Christ.

“Peaches and I did a hunt for great independent horror films,” she stated. “Then we screened the winning films online, like ‘Siskel and Ebert’ but not.”

During her time away from Knott’s she stayed extremely busy. Outside of launching ElvirasHorrorHunt.com and “Elvira’s Haunted Hills” she made appearances at major theme parks like Disney for Halloween for years and toured the world with her stage show, marketing merchandise, appearing at conventions, doing guest spots on TV…not bad for someone that remains ageless to the masses but in reality was born Sept. 17, 1951. That’s right, Elvira is a fabulous 62 and puts most of us to shame; and hey, Cher is 67 and out promoting a new album with a tour, so what is old, after all? Certainly not Peterson or Elvira.

In fact, in her new stage show, “Elvira’s Sinema Seánce” she is back at the Ghoul Time Theatre, after a 12 year absence and has brought along the “Academy of Villains” direct from “America’s Got Talent.” It’s a multi-media extravaganza, with new effects, new choreography, but the same Elvira, camping it up, sassing it up, and dropping one liners like it was 1982 all over again.

“Being Elvira is a lot of work,” she said, “but what a reward. Elvira is more confident than me, more secure. It’s funny, one of the most common questions I get is what scares me. I think doing interviews scares me more than anything because you just sit and talk about yourself. What scares most people doesn’t scare me, spiders, snakes that sort of thing. But sitting around going on about myself to reporters, run!” she laughed as a reporter for South Florida News tried to pin her down on the question yet again.

And while being Elvira may be a lot of work, Peterson doesn’t shy away from it. On the contrary, Elvira is doing two shows a night through Oct. 31st at Knott’s and shows no signs of slowing after that. She is the reigning Queen of Halloween, a title she has earned and seems to relish. Haunt tickets are separate and range from $38 to $62 depending and can be found at http://www.knotts.com

All things Elvira can be found at http://www.elvira.com

 

To hear the podcast or to listen to The Karel Show live daily go to http://www.thekarelshow.com website or get the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/karel/id504596502?mt=8 for iOS or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gcn.karelshow for Android. Be sure to follow Karel on twitter @thekarelshow

 

 

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